We went to Belle Plagne with Esprit early last season.
The hotel was indeed very lovely in all aspects that I can remember,
the ski area is one of my favourites, 99% of the Esprit staff were wonderful -
including a couple of nannies who went beyond their job's worth (what's the expression?).
The rep did a couple of sessions of ski guiding early in the week, which were fab.
IMHO Belle Plagne is the nicest "village" in La Plagne as well -
compact, good selection of shops and activities, also easy to hop on the gondola down to Bellecote.
There are lots of steps though - we often noticed a few pushchairs left temporarily at
the bottom of the village! (However there is a couple of lifts.)
Negatives - unless it has moved, the nursery ski garden is in an awkward place for the little ones to get
to. They are bussed up the road as far as it goes, but still have quite a long, very steep little
path to get up, in their ski boots. The esprit staff did seem to be helping them by lifting them up
parts of it, but there is 1 staff member to several kids. Having said that, the
day I watched them, most of the kids were fine with it.
Childcare provision is good, lots of lovely toys and most staff seemed good, good baby facilities,
but of course it is the "group" scenario, you can get new bugs spreading like wildfire.
I mention this because my DD was taken out of her childcare at lunchtime on day 2 and did not
return for the rest of the week - it does happen. So we were grateful for the nice hotel and good resort.
By the end of the week, I think that more than half the babies were out of the nursery with D&V.
Not the fault of esprit or their staff, of course, more a comment on that kind of set-up.
We didn't do ski lessons. Bought lift pass for whole La Plagne area - would recommend
this for intermediates and above, lots of lovely runs on the "back" of the mountain.
IIRC the La Plagne pass includes a day in Les Arcs (over on the Vanoise Express,
assuming it is open next season!) which sounds like fun!